Cabinet structures



Nov. 28, 1961 w. G. FISHER 3,010,776

CABINET STRUCTURES Filed Feb. 1, 1960 W/LZ IAM 6. F/IHEQ Y E $7 7m United States Patent fiice 3,010,776 Patented Nov. 28, 1961 3,010,776 CABINET STRUCTURES William G. Fisher, Wilmington, Del., assignor to Philco Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Feb. 1, 1960, Ser. No. 5,721 3 Claims. (Cl. 312273) This invention relates to shelving and particularly, although not exclusively, to shelving for use in the cabinets of domestic refrigerators. More specifically the invention has to do with that kind of shelf which can be contracted or collapsed, as well as extended, to suit varying uses of a cabinet.

A primary object of the invention, accordingly, is to provide a shelf which can be contracted and expanded in simple and convenient fashion. A more specific object is to minimize the area and space occupied by the collapsed shelf structure. A further object is to avoid the use of a shelf-pivoting, space-obstructing post. Still other objects are to provide shelving of the indicated type which affords adequate and stable support for the articles to be stored in a refrigerator, to facilitate keeping the cabinet in clean and proper condition, and to provide for utilization of such shelving in cabinets of various designs.

The new structure achieves these several objects by providing novel linkage for movable shelf elements and by using pivotal and slidable, linkage-actuated connecting means for each shelf element. A preferred embodiment of the invention uses channel-shaped shelf elements, guided in suitable tracks, and which can be moved by a pair of swingable levers. This preferred embodiment is shown in the drawing appended hereto, which will now be described.

FIGURE 1 is a perspective front View of a shelving structure according to this invention. FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of one shelf of said structure. FIG- URE 3 is a fragmentary front View, showing certain parts of the shelf in greater detail; and FIGURE 4 is an exploded perspective view showing further parts of the shelf in detail and in an orientation different from that of the other figures.

Referring first to FIGURE 1: The illustrated refrigerator has a series of shelves 11, 12, 13 horizontally mounted therein, one above the other. The refrigerator as shown is also equipped with a crisper 14 below said shelves, and a freezer 15 thereabove. Equipment 11 to 15 is surrounded by refrigerator side walls 16, 17 and rear wall 18, and the front of the refrigerator can be closed by a door 19.

The several shelves of shelving structure 11, 12, 13 can be of uniform construction, and preferred features of such construction are shown in FIGURE 2. Each shelf comprises a three-sided track and frame structure 20, formed of rigid frame members or beams 21, 22, 23, for supporting and guiding a series of movably installed, laterally extending, mutually parallel shelf elements 24. A horizontally swingable lever structure 25, 26, 27 is provided directly below these elements for controlling their motions.

Two of the guide frame members, identified as 21 and 22, are channels. They can readily be secured to inside surfaces of the cabinet side walls in a refrigerator or other cabinet, best shown in FIGURE 3 at 17, 22. The channels extend from the front to the back of the cabinet, in horizontal orientation, and with the open sides of the channels facing one another, see FIGURE 2. A third channel or bar member 23 is provided as part of frame unit 29 and interconnects the rear ends of guide channels 21, 22 in such a way that unit 20, consisting of members 21, 22, 23, constitutes a rigid, self-contained frame structure with an open front, as is further shown in FIGURE 2.

The shelf elements 24 are straight, slender bars, desirably in the form of light but strong channel members, each having the ends thereof supported by and slidable in the side channels 21, 22 of the guiding and supporting track structure of FIGURE 2. The several shelf elements 24 are conjointly shiftable in forward and backward directions, by means including a pair of mutually parallel arms 25, 26, forming part of the above-mentioned lever structure. These arms are spaced along and beneath frame member 23 and both are pivoted to one end portion of said member 23. Each lever arm 25, 26 is also connected with each slidable shelf bar 24, in a manner presently to be described. For the manipulation of the lever arms, a handle 27 is secured to the front ends of said arms, interconnecting the same; and this handle also serves as a means to keep the two arms parallel with one another, which in turn serves to insure proper parallelism between the slidable bars 24, in the various positions of the latter. The slidable bars 24 are connected to the lever arms 25, 26, at uniform distances along said arms and so that the bars, in each position thereof, are parallel and uniformly spaced one from the other.

Such spacing is small or nil when lever arms 25, 26 have been swung rearwardly, and the entire set of sliding bars of the shelf unit then constitutes only a ledge, occupying a negligible, narrow strip of space in the rear of the cabinet, as indicated in FIGURE 1 at 11. On the other hand said lever arms 25, 26 can be swung entirely forwardly, as indicated at 12, in which case the shelf unit extends over the entire inside area of the refrigerator cabinet. Relatively wide air spaces, of generally rectangular outline, are then established between the shelf bars, allowing air to circulate through the shelf as well as over the same. Finally it is possible, as indicated at 13, to adjust a shelf incorporating the invention so as to cover a desired fraction of the cabinets crosssectional area. By means of these difierent she-1f arrangements, which can be varied to suit the preferences and requirements of different households, it is possible to maintain optimum utilization of the refrigerator space, under various conditions as to type of food parcels, bottles and the like, to be stored in the refrigerator. The cleaning of the refrigerator is also facilitated, as it becomes possible substantially to remove the obstruction offered by individual shelves, and yet to avoid the neces y sity of removal and re-insertion of theshelf structure.

The various, forward and backward movements of the shelf bars 24 are, desirably, executed in a smooth and ready manner. For this purpose slidable support of the shelf bars is provided, by connectors 28 (FIGURE 3), on the ends of each bar 24-, which connectors may be blocks of plastic material, such as nylon, non-tiltably but slidably fitted into the channels 22. Each block 28 can be rigid with its bar 24, being connected thereto by fasteners such as rivets 29. These arrangements serve to prevent the bars from tilting in either vertical or horizontal planes.

For these latter purposes it is further preferred, as generally indicated in FIGURE 3 and more fully shown in FIGURE 4, to interconnect the swinging lever arms 25, 26 with each individual shelf bar 24 by means of a single, elongate block 30, slidably inserted with close fit in a channel-shaped structure constituting the shelf bar. Each arm 25, 26 is connected with each sliding block 30 by a simple screw or bolt 31, which extends upward through a slightly oversized hole 32 in the arm and is threaded into a screw hole 33 in the underside of block 30. Holes 32 are uniformly spaced along arms 25, 26, between the front and rear ends of said arms; and each bolt 31 is 3 rotatably secured to one of the arms, by insertion in such a hole 3-2, while being slidable along bar'24, between the ends thereof, with connector block 30. The desired parallelism between the lever arms, and also between the shelf bars is further insured by this use of the laterally slidable, elongate blocks 30.

-As was mentioned with respect to connectors 28, connectors can be constructed in the form of nylon blocks, and such blocks 30 can have sliding fit in the corresponding, downwardly facing channel elements 24. By means of such fit the invention allows smooth and easy motion of the shelf elements, upon the manual, forward and backward shifting of handles 27.

The sliding fit can be made fairly close. The invention. then provides a suitable degree ofbrake action or stabilization, guarding against any danger of unexpected, sudden, sliding away of the shelf elements when a slight push is delivered to the front element or handle. It is sufiicient to use said relatively close, sliding fit with re spect to a single pair of end connectors 28, or preferably with respect to a single one of the linkage connectors 39.

' The relatively close fit can for instance be obtained by suitably compressing a spring washer 34 between block 30 and the head of one connector-fastener 31, thereby adjustably pressing lever 25 against the bottom edges or flanges of the channel member which constitutes the front element 24 of the shelf. The connector-fasteners 35 of the blocks 30 in the other channels or shelf elements 24 can have, .for instance, the form of machine screws, threaded into such blocks without the use of spring washers and causing no pressure to be applied by the levers against said other channels so that a relatively loose, sliding fit is provided between said other channels 24 and the lever arms, thereby avoiding undesirable resistance to the expanding and contracting of the shelf.

A bracket 36 secures handle 27 to the front element 24 of the shelf, and the illustrated handle includes a decorative front element 37, suitably attached to said bracket.

The user can readily contract the new shelf unit, by pushing handle member 37 backwardly. The handle then swings from the broken line position shown in FIGURE 2 toward the rear and full line position of that figure; the linkage-connecting blocks 30 slide toward the left, in their respective shelf channels 24; and the shelf-supporting connector blocks 28, FIGURE 3, slide toward the back in their respective side channels 21, 22. These actions can be reversed by manual forward pulling of handle member'37, for the purpose of forward extension of the shelf.

A most advantageous feature of the new construction is that the maintenance of the refrigerator cabinet is greatly facilitated thereby. The side and rear wall surfaces of the cabinet, as well as evaporator surfaces and the like (not shown), can be reached for purposes of inspection, cleaning, or repair, by simply pushing the shelf handle back. It is no longer necessary, as in prior constructions, to remove an entire shelf from the cabinet, or to install space-obstructing pivot posts for rotation of shelves, or to resort to other problematic arrangements. 'In fact it is not always necessary for such purposes to remove all' of the contents of a shelf; it is possible to push small packages back onto the narrow ledge, provided by the collapsed shelf.

Still further, the new type of shelving allows a cabinet, equipped with the same, to be utilized more completely, more flexibly, and more efiiciently than is possible with former types of shelving. For instance, when goods of exceptional height must be stored, one or two of the shelves, overlying a lower shelf or thecabinet bottom structure 14, can be pushed back either all or part of the way, as may be required; yet the entire shelf area can be made available for storage of less tall items, by pulling the shelf handles forward. Because of the close, sliding fit of connecting means, as fully describedabove, all the intermediate positions of each shelf, which are in no way limited to any specific front-to-back dimensions, are maintained as stably and as securely as are the fully extended and contracted positions. It is impossible for the shelving to interfere with the operation of other elements, such as the door of the cabinet.

While only a'single embodiment of the invention has been fully described, some possible modifications have been noted and it should further be understood that the details thereof are not tobe construed as limitative of the invention, except insofar as is consistent with the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. A cabinet shelf for food storage and the like, comprising a series of parallel, generally horizontal Channel members having inwardly flanged downwardly facing aperture slots coextensive with said members, a series of slide pivot members, one for each of said channel members, each slide pivot member being slidably retained in the flanged aperture slot of the corresponding channel member; and means interconnecting said slide pivot members, below said channel members, for expanding and contracting the shelf by sliding said pivot members conjointly in and along their channel members.

2. A shelf structure for a cabinet, comprising a pair of guideways extending along side walls of the cabinet; 21 series of channel members having ends slidably supported in said guideways, said channel members extending be tween such ends, parallel to each other, with aperture slots downwardly facing; a lever structure having an end portion pivoted to the cabinet; and a series of slide pivot blocks, each slidable in and along one of said aperture slots and each connected to said lever structure.

3. In a shelf structure, a series of downwardly open channels, a bar slidably retained in each channel and a pair of levers below said channels, one lever spaced from and parallel to the other and each pivoted to one end of each of said bars, with uniform distances between the pivot points of the bars, each lever also having an end adapted to be pivoted to a wall of the cabinet for the shelf structure.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

